honestly doesn't even feel like winter anymore. Thanks for the
Valentines Day cookies mom, they were incredible like always! This
week we saw so many blessings throughout this week! Let's start out
with Chad's lesson. We didn't know what to do with Chad because he
wasn't really progressing. We decided we would talk to him about the
Plan of Salvation. He brought us to get Hot Chocolate, and we asked
if he would want to go to the church to have us teach him a lesson.
He agreed, and we went and taught him! It went really well, and at
the very end he said that this just makes sense to him! It is so cool
to see how our spirits remember what we learned in the pre-earth life,
and that it seems so familiar to us. We are going to invite him to
come to church and invite him to be baptized after we teach him the
Restoration, I can't wait!
We taught a less-active couple this past week. We have been
trying to get in contact with Dusty for awhile, but he has been busy
performing around the Western U.S in his band. We finally got to talk
to them, and teach them a lesson! We showed them Daily Bread:
Pattern, and taught them how important it is to have that daily
spiritual sustenance in order to keep their testimonies strong,
especially in this crazy world we live in! We invited them to read
and pray daily, and they said they would! We are going to follow up
with them next week to see how their doing!
We had Zone Meeting this week, and had wonderful trainings
on "Locking your Heart", diligence, and obedience. Our mission right
now is having a big push on working a lot more with the youth, because
young people are so much more receptive to learning about the Gospel.
We are going to start implementing different ideas this week as we
work with them to help them teach their friends about the Gospel, as
well as having them meet with us as missionaries! I know that as we
focus on the youth more, we will have more success. We are attending
a mutual night this week to get to know the youth in both wards! I
can't wait to use these new ideas to become more effective!
Out of the clear blue on Tuesday, President McMurray
called us right after we got done teaching Chad. He asked us if we
had a lesson that he could come to that night. We said we taught
Chad, but that we had a lesson Thursday night with at 7:00 with the
Wakkinen family. He said he would check his schedule and call us
back. He called us and said that would work! The Wakkinen's are a
part member family. Brother Wakkinen is a less-active, and his wife
isn't a member along with their two daughters who are six and eight.
We were so excited to teach them! President met us at 6:00 Thursday
night, and we went over our lesson plan with him. We planned to teach
them the Plan of Salvation, focusing mostly on the little girls. We
drove up to their house, and we introduced President. He connected
really well with them and that really set the tone for our lesson! As
we taught them using little cut-outs, it felt like President faded out
of the room and it was just like any other lesson. We asked him
questions about how the Plan of Salvation has blessed him and his
family. That was so awesome to have someone with a family testify of
its truthfulness! Throughout the lesson, we could feel a sweet Spirit
there with us. Elder Kimball and I started to finish each other's
sentences and we taught so well! The little girls would run up to
their parents and hug them saying "mommy, daddy, I want to be with you
forever!" There were definitely some heart strings being pulled! At
the end, we invited them to come to church, but Brother Wakkinen said
he would be out of town. We invited them to have daily family prayer,
and I testified how that blessed my family while I was growing up.
They accepted and said they would! We gave a Book of Mormon to the
little girls that was signed by the whole Primary, and told them that
they were always welcome there. On our drive back to the church, we
talked with President about how we did, what we could do better, and
how we could best teach them going forward. He said we did an
excellent job teaching, inviting, and testifying. He said he thought
that the only way the family would progress is getting Brother
Wakkinen to start reading from the Book Of Mormon and having that
desire to come back. If he comes, the family will follow! We will
definitely be focusing on the Restoration and the Book Of Mormon the
next two lessons we have with them! It was such an amazing experience
having President McMurray there with us, what an opportunity! He
really likes Elder Kimball and I.
We had exchanges with our Zone Leaders this week. I went
with Elder McFadden, it was nice to be with him again! Towards the
end of our exchange, we had little success Tracting in apartments in
Greeley, so we decided to tract right next to UNC's campus where
students would be living. We found five new potential investigators,
and handed out six Book of Mormons! Whenever I'm with Elder McFadden,
we always find so many people to teach! I know that as we put forth
our effort, even though we had no success before, Heavenly Father
blessed us for our efforts!
I read in my personal studies in Alma 48:17. What a
verse! It is so true, if we were all like Captain Moroni, all the
powers of hell would shake! I know that we can be modern day Moroni's
as we read our scriptures and pray daily, and become more like our
Savior using His Atonement and learning from His Gospel! I want to
challenge you all to look at your life as it is now, and find
something to change to make you more like our Savior. Even changing a
little thing can make all the difference! Thank you so much for all
the support! I love you guys so much, and hope you have a wonderful
week this week!
Love,
Elder Bailey
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